Gold River Buzz

Submitted by Sheila Bugar

What a wonderful day!  The weather couldn’t have been any better and the community was all there to participate!   Campbell River Pipe Band started off the parade with about 40 floats/vehicles and a few groups of walkers and there were still plenty of people to watch the parade!!!  There were 19 decorated floats entered into the  1^st Annual Best Decorated Float Contest.  After the parade everyone headed over to Nimpkish Park for the festivities.  At 1pm we kicked off the festivities with the announcement of next year’s Gold River Days theme…PIRATES!  So get your thinking caps on for Gold River Days,  May 13^th-15^th 2011!  The day was full of Bounce-a-rama activities, Apple Pie & Chili Contest, Free BBQ , Free Slushies, Speed Ball Booth & contest, Fish Pond and Boat building, Chicken Poop Bingo, Music by CJ Sound, Emergency Services Displays, Northgate Face Painting booth and of course the Dunk tank!  Ending the night with a Gold River Day Dance hosted by the Legion.

I want to thank the entire community of Gold River all for your participation and support!  Especially to all my helpers!!!  It’s one thing to plan an event but the success totally depends on the participation of the community. In order to raise the community spirit it requires all of us to collectively make an effort.   With the success we had with this one day event, imagine what we will see next year over 3 days! I was so pleased to see over 500 people on the field that day!  Gold River, you all rock!!!!  I look forward to next year and the many more floats, booths and people!    Let’s all work together to make this annual event the biggest event of the year, something we call all look forward to and plan for!  Next year I’d really love to see more of a competition between sports teams, businesses, groups, schools ,etc!   Let’s have some fun!  It’s also a perfect opportunity for all local organizations, clubs,  and groups to get out there and get noticed.   I’m currently planning more yearly festivities so keep a look-out!

If you have any questions, suggestions or ways you would like to participate, please email me at sbugar@cablerocket.com or call me at 283-2910. I have created a group site on Facebook called Gold River Days for anyone wishing to keep updated, view photos or offer ideas.  As well, keep checking the Gold River Day section on the Buzz www.goldriverbuzz.com.  For anyone who didn’t see the parade, they can watch it on www.youtube.com thanks to Sharon Rasmussen.  Just type Gold River Day Parade in the search and click on part 1 or Part 2.

Now for the Contest winner’s and Thank You’s!

Best Decorated Float Annual Trophy donated by Gold River Health Care Auxiliary:

1^st Place – Christian Fellowship Church

2^nd Place – Northgate Church

3^rd Place – Cypress Creek Logging

Honourable Mention – G.R. RCMP

Apple Pie Contest

1^st Place – Melone Larre

2^nd Place – Katie Nielson

3^rd Place – Jerry West

Chili Contest

1^st Place – Laara Tourangeau

2^nd Place – Katie Nielson

3^rd Place – Gail Shillito

The winner of the random drawing for all decorated floats to win a FREE Helicopter ride was the Gold River Health Centre!!!

Parade & Festivities:

A HUGE thank you goes to the Gold River C.O.P.S,  they did the barricading, blocking and policing the parade as well as helping me with whatever was needed from 9am that morning until 5pm that afternoon!  Bill Wright, Doria Croteau, Jerry Garcia, Randy Laws and Suzanne Trevis, you really have no idea how much I appreciate you!

Thank you to the parade judges  Craig Anderson, Art Walton and Sheila Bugar.

All the participants of the parade!!! Too many to list! Thank you all for your participation!

Thank You to Betty Bell & Christine O’Neil for taking charge of the Apple Pie/Chili Contest booth!  Well done!

Thank you to all of the BBQ’rs!  What a job that turned out to be!!!  We were short one BBQ and I think the tents were more of a pain than a help!  Larry Fehr  for  cooking the salmon all day!  Ken, Edie & Deanna Merlo,   Jill McCormack, Toni Bell, Lisa Morris, Craig Anderson and Meghan Bennett for slaving over the BBQ’s and food booths all afternoon.   I’m sorry you didn’t get much of an opportunity to enjoy the festivities.  I really appreciate your hard work.

Thank you to Stephanie Cunningham for baking and donating the beautiful and HUGE Gold River Day cake!

Thank you to all of the volunteers I rounded up on the field that day to help supervise the Bounce-a-rama tents!  There are way too many to name, although most of them were teenagers!  Great job!!

A HUGE thank you to Romeo & Darla Gaiga as well as the rest of the Northgate Church team for taking it upon themselves to clean up the entire field of all the garbage and bottles as well as jumping in to help wherever there was help needed!!!! What a blessing!

Thank you to my post-festivities clean up crew;  Sandi & Barry Wells and all the Thrive Youth Teens that hung around to help Bounce-a-rama take down, fold up and put away! What a job that was too!

Village of Gold River for all their help in preparation and the use of all equipment that was needed!  As well as the Fire Department!!

A very BIG and most special thank you to my VERY supportive husband Jim and children Nolan, Dylan and Jillian. You have been so patient, encouraging, helpful and supportive throughout all the planning and the event itself.  Also to Craig Anderson and Betty Bell for your total support and help from day one!

Booths:

-G.R. RCMP for their speed ball booth & contest

-Rod & Gun Club for the Fish Pond and boat building

-Northgate Church for the Face Painting

-Lee Ann Adair & Little Dino’s for the Chicken Poop Bingo

-Suzanne Trevis , G.R. Museum Society & all her ‘Dunkee’s’ for the Dunk Tank

Donations:

Thank you to:

-Western Pacific Forest Products for donating ALL the hamburgers, hotdogs, condiments, etc.

-Village of Gold River for donating $2500 towards the Bounce-a-rama

-Larry Fehr, Overhead Doors and Jim McPherson for the cash donations

-RCMP for photocopying the 800 flyers

-Grieg Seafood for supplying all the fish and free slushies

-Super Valu for donating all the water

-Covanta for their donation of $5000 towards future G.R. Days events

-G.R. Lions Club for the use of their tents

-E.B. Helicopters for their donation of the Free Helicopter Ride

-G.R. Resident  Society for their $800 donation

-G.R. Future Society for their donations and support

-V.I. Insurance Centre Gold River for the photocopying of all the letters

-RWES for the use of the Megaphones

-100.1 FM The River, The Gold River Buzz, The Community Channel and The Record for your time and support

-Craig Anderson,  Andy Flynn, Jim Bugar for the use of their personal generators and Craig for plugging in 4 separate items in his home and the use of his BBQ’s!!

-Gold River Health Care Auxiliary for their $300 donation toward the Annual Best Decorated Float Trophy

Thank you all again and I’m very sorry if there is anyone I missed.  I look forward to hosting this event again next year and I encourage you all to get involved in your community in some way or another.  Check the local Community Directory for a list of all the clubs, organizations and community information.  Gold River is a wonderful and beautiful place to live, sometimes I don’t think we realize how lucky we are!  Let’s have some fun bringing back the Spirit of Gold River!!!

Sincerely,

~Sheila Bugar

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